Stephen Cummings

A twice-published novelist, Melbourne-based singer songwriter Stephen Cummings
has just released his 10th solo album, the much-praised Skeleton Key, and is now
on tour with guitarist extraordinaire Shane OèMara (of Rebecca's Empire and Paul
Kelly's band) to promote it.

We recently spoke over the telephone and began by asking Stephen about his
signing to W Minc, the small boutique Melbourne-based record label run by former
Moodist Steve Miller and 'Evil' Graham Lee (of The Triffids) which re-issued his
last album, Spiritual Bum.

"Itès good to be with a company who are totally passionate about music," he
said. "And Skeleton Key was one of the easiest albums I've ever made. We just
did it during the week and had the weekends off."

Following a stint with country-ish rockabilly band The Pelaco Brothers (with Joe
Camilleri) in the early-70s, Stephen came to fame with internationally
successful new-wave pop band The Sports during the latter part of that decade
and also during much of the '80s. The band released a series of successful
albums, some recorded in the UK, before disbanding following the release of
Sondra.

Stephen then embarked on a solo career that began with the disco-flavoured
Senso, but hit a high point with the release of the highly acclaimed acoustic
Lovetown album. He has since worked with Steve Kilbey (of The Church), Charlie
Marshall and also with Bill McDonald on the Four Hours Of Sleep project and
appeared on various soundtrack albums. He has also recorded his song Fell From
A Great Height as a duet with US singer songwriter Toni Childs.

His latest affair, Skeleton Key, recorded at Shane O'Mara's Yikesville Studio
and Joe Camilleri's Woodstock Studio, has been scoring some great reviews with
the Weekend Australian rating it very highly. Included on the album is Love Is
Mighty Close To You which Jimmy Little has also covered for his new album,
resonate.

"I wrote the song with Jimmy in mind," Stephen revealed, "but didn't know
whether it was eventually going to be on his album or not. But I liked the song
so much I decided to record it myself. Vika and Linda have also recorded it as
well."

Stephen will be venturing to town with guitarist Shane OèMara.

"It's working well," he said. "We've already done shows in Melbourne, Sydney and
Brisbane and because Shane's such a great player, it's very powerful. With
Shane, you don't just get him - it's his guitar and 20 or so pedals."

Stephen came to town last year to appear as a supreme court judge in the
locally-made, yet-to-be-released film Dope, to which he also contributed some
songs to the soundtrack.

"That comes out in February," Stephen revealed. "The guy who did it, Jay
Harkness, is a bit of a fan of mine, but as well as four songs from me, there's
also some hip hop from some South Australian guys. Neil Finn also has a song in
it and a Sydney DJ has also done a remix of It's A Man's Man's World.

"And the film was fun to make," he laughed, "although I was in Adelaide for
about 10 days for the film but end up on screen for about 30 seconds."

The audience can expect some older favourites when Stephen and Shane perform.

"It'll be a real mixture of everything,õ the singer said. "I'll cover all of my
career so there'll be some revamped versions of older songs as well as songs
from Skeleton Key."

Stephen Cummings and Shane O'Mara play the Governor Hindmarsh on Fri Nov 9.
Stephen Cummings' latest album, Skeleton Key, is out now through W Minc
(distributed by MGM) and he has a fine website at <www.lovetown.net>
Warning: Don't go to <www.lovetown.com> as you'll end up at the world's
biggest on-line phone dating service.